Thinking of You

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Mary Beth Runnoe was only eleven when she met Mr. Davis-the charming and worshipful young choir teacher would hold her in thrall for decades.</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In prose as resolute as it is haunting Runnoe explores what it felt like to be groomed by an older man as the focus of Davis' inappropriate yet strongly appealing attentions and favor. As she was drawn deeper and deeper into his web her life turned upside down. She became the keeper of his secrets and his closest confidante carried along amidst the exhilarating expectation that she was somehow more than just a child with a crush on a teacher and that God himself looked with favor upon their relationship. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Today Runnoe is about the same age as was Mr. Davis when their compelling and inappropriate relationship began. She finds herself looking back on Mr. Davis' influence over the very course of her life-the notes and letters he wrote the gestures he made the memories long-buried the traps she was unable to avoid-to reflect upon the meaning of innocence and faith and to come to terms with the experience of this older man's attentions and its effect on her development as a woman and an adult.</span></p><p></p><p><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Thinking of You </em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>is a story about grooming the delicacy of power and the effects of its influence on the powerless. It is a story about reclaiming repainting and retelling. And though it is specifically Runnoe's story she knows her life experience has not been unique. By sharing her journey she hopes she might help others find their voices and their peace as well.</span></p><p></p><p></p>